SKorea confirms defection of NKorea restaurant workers

SEOUL: A group of North Koreans working at a restaurant in China has defected to the South, Seoul confirmed on Tuesday, a month after a similar, high-profile defection. South Korean news agency Yonhap had reported Monday that three women in their 20s were waiting in Thailand to board a flight to Seoul after leaving their jobs at a restaurant in the Chinese city of Xian. Seoul’s unification ministry, which handles cross-border affairs, confirmed the defection in a statement but declined to elaborate, citing safety of the refugees. It is the second such incident in two months, after 13 workers at a North Korea-themed restaurant in the Chinese city of Ningbo made a high-profile defection to Seoul in April.